Scarring of the organs is a major global health problem. Such scarring can be the consequence of subclinical injury to the organ over a period of time or the sequela of acute severe injury or inflammation.
All organs can be affected by scarring. Scarring provokes decline in organ function, inflammation and tissue ischemia. These effects may be directly due the deposition of fibrotic matrix which impairs organ function such as in contractility and relaxation of the heart and vasculature or impaired inflation and deflation of lungs, or by increasing the space between microvasculature and vital cells of the organ that are deprived of nutrients in a distorted tissue architecture. Currently there are few effective therapies that treat such scarring of organs.